Flood law stifling growth

Let's hope some common sense - read, compromise - can help ease a burgeoning environmental situation that could impact Stockton.

Let's hope some common sense - read, compromise - can help ease a burgeoning environmental situation that could impact Stockton.

Consider:

» The city's 2008 legal settlement with the Sierra Club and then-California Attorney General Jerry Brown discouraged by the idea of growth through sprawl.

» A state law passed just after Hurricane Katrina requires communities to change their general plans and zoning guidelines to reflect risk from a 200-year flood.

» Because of this, some local officials say the law could discourage infill projects and encourage sprawl.

A flood of "200-year" proportions has a 0.5 percent chance of happening every year.

"It's kind of mind-boggling," said Stockton's Mike Self, who bought some undeveloped land near Lincoln Center for just such an environmentally friendly infill project and now could be stifled. "It's a lack of vision - and lack of knowing - that the law is going to just wreak havoc on a town that is trying to make an economic recovery."

The problem for Stockton is that local governments, under the law, are prohibited from giving an OK to developments in flood hazard zones. Unfortunately, almost all of Stockton is regarded in just such a zone.

There is hope because the Department of Water Resources, which is charged with administering the law, anticipates some flexibility. There is a "working group" formed by the state to delve into potential problems and solutions with local officials.

That's a step. Let's hope that it proves productive, so that the law doesn't end up being counter-productive.

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